By DJ Bean | Comments Off on Tyler Seguin shooting a ton, but feels he can do more

Tyler Seguin has been able to bring more to the table offensively as a second-year player. Through 11 games, he has 11 points (four goals, seven assists), which both leads the Bruins and is half of his point total from his rookie season.

Seguin assisted Patrice Bergeron‘s second-period goal in Tuesday’s win over the Senators, but he had a few questionable plays in the first period. The most notable of those plays was one in which he beat a defenseman at the blue line and passed up a breakaway for an attempted drop-pass. The play resulted in a turnover and left anyone watching wondering why he didn’t shoot on the play.

‘Yeah, I do think that I need to shoot more,” Seguin acknowledged Wednesday at TD Garden. I remember there was one play ‘ I don’t remember if it was in the first or second last night ‘ I went down on the D and kind went one way and cut back the other way and when I watched the replay, I almost had a clear breakaway but I decided to pass. For whatever reason, my first instinct is always to try and look back but I know I’ve got to stop maybe being too fancy and just put pucks to the net. I know I’ve seen myself, when I shoot more, being rewarded. I think I’ve got to continue doing that and not give away good shots.’

The long-beaten-to-death topic of wing vs. center with Seguin comes into play in such a case, as he admitted Wednesday that because he is a natural center, his instinct is to distribute the puck rather than shooting it himself. At any rate, Seguin is still shooting way more than he did last season. The 19-year-old is on pace for over 268 shots on gaol this season, as he’s averaged more 3.27 shots on on gaol per game through the first 11 contests and is second only to Bergeron (39). Last season, Seguin put 131 pucks on net in 74 games.

Bruins coach Claude Julien also wished that Seguin shot the puck on that first period play Tuesday, but he didn’t fault the youngster for the decision he made.

“In that case, you probably wish he would have taken it to the net and maybe even drawn a penalty on that because he had half a step, but you’ve got to also realize that those two players behind him were kind of open and a guy like him is a really good playmaker,” Julien said. “You don’t want to be too hard on those kinds of decisions.”

Bruins forward Tyler Seguin has a congenital hip condition that makes him more suspect to a injury, according to a report from ESPNBoston’s Joe McDonald.

McDonald writes that the team is not currently concerned over what the condition may mean for Seguin in the near future, though Seguin could suffer a hip injury if he does not maintain strength in the area.

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli told McDonald that the condition is “nothing to be alarmed about” and that approximately 70 percent of the Bruins have some sort of hip issue.

“I’m not going to comment whether it’s congenital or not,” Chiarelli said. “I don’t want to get into details what we think it is or isn’t and I don’t want any alarm bells going off. Like I said, you can go through our roster and there are probably 12 or 13 guys with something similar or the same thing.”

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference joined Dennis & Callahan Friday morning for his weekly appearance. After the Bruins’ dominating 6-2 victory over the Maple Leafs Thursday night, Ference talked about Boston’s line changes and improvement on the power play.

“It’s one of those things, the power play was actually working pretty good, we were getting the puck around, we just weren’t putting it in,” Ference said. “We were working towards larger things on the power play and we felt that it was doing a lot of good things, so it was a matter of time.”

The Bruins scored twice on the power play against Toronto, with Ference assisting on one of those goals. In addition to better play from special teams, the Bruins also benefited from some line changes made by coach Claude Julien in recent days. The top line of Milan Lucic, Chris KellyandTyler Seguinwas particularly effective against the Maple Leafs. Ference said that the line changes helped the Bruins get back to focusing on the simple parts of the game.

“I think it helped, it energized guys I think a bit, just to give them a little kick in the pants,” Ference said. “I think when you change linemates, you get out of your comfort zone a bit. You really just concentrate on doing simple things, like skating hard, getting to the net, throwing pucks at the net.

‘ª”It was a good move. We needed a little shakeup. Guys were a little bit stale with the old lines and you can always go back to them, but I think just letting guys concentrate on the simple things really helps.”‘¬

Ference also talked about emotions running high in the Bruins’ loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday and forward Shawn Thornton‘s value to the team.

On Boston’s penalty-filled loss to the Hurricanes: “I think that game, the emotion was a byproduct of the frustration. When our team’s good, the emotion’s just a part of our game. It’s not forced, it’s just there. I think that I mentioned after the game, the game of hockey within its rules allows us to be very physical, allows us to be emotional without hitting the box all night. When our team’s playing well, sure there are fights here and there, but we’re just a physical team all the time. We’re always hitting, always forechecking, always giving teams no room. … In a game where there’s a bunch of fights and a bunch of penalties and it’s just kind of chaotic with the physical stuff, that’s going to happen once in a while but that stuff’s definitely not something that we define ourselves as.”

By DJ Bean | Comments Off on Five stats on the Bruins through five games

Five games into last season, one could hardly tell the Bruins were going to be Stanley Cup champions, but a couple of things were apparent. For starters, it was clear that Tim Thomas was capable of playing at a high level again after his offseason hip surgery, and it seemed that Nathan Horton had it in him to play some big games for the B’s.

Now five games into this season, there are a few things that are apparent about this team, though injuries to the likes of David Krejci and Adam McQuaid have made it tough to effectively gauge some things.

The Bruins started off the season in a 1-3-0 funk, but may be coming out of it after their 3-2 shootout victory over the Blackhawks Saturday in Chicago. Up next is a four-game home stand with the Hurricanes, Maple Leafs, Sharks and Canadiens coming to town.

“I feel we’re turning the corner here,” coach Claude Julien said Monday of the team after five games. “I liked our game in Chicago, the way we progressed through tut the day. Today in practice we seemed to have a much better pace. Hopefully that’s a good sign of us turning the corner.”

Here are five quick stats on the Bruins through five games, with a look at last season as well.

1.Tyler Seguin leads the Bruins with five points, which is a little less than a quarter of his 22 points from all of last season. He also leads the team with a plus-3 rating and has 16 shots on goal, good for tops amongst forwards and second only to defensemanDennis Seidenberg.

2. Last season, Horton led the team with seven points through five games. This season, he has a goal and an assist through five contests, struggling mightily in the first few games of the season before seemingly finding himself of late. Bottom-six forwards Gregory Campbell,Chris Kelly and Jordan Caron (who has only played in three games) are the only Bruins’ forwards with less than his five shots on goal.

3. Thomas has won two and lost two this season, allowing eight goals in four games. Five games into last season, Thomas had allowed three goals in four games, and had won all four of his starts. He picked up his first shutout in the second game of the 2010-11 season and went on to have two more by the end of the month.

4. Bruins were 4-for-19 on the power play through five games last season. This season, they are 1-for-21, as they have not scored on the man advantage since Brad Marchand scored on the team’s first power play of the season.

5. Seidenberg leads the B’s in ice time with an average of 25:26 a night yet also has a minus-2 rating that is tied for worst on the team. Further proof that plus-minus rarely tells the whole story.

By DJ Bean | Comments Off on David Krejci doubtful for Tuesday after returning to the ice

WILMINGTON — Though he wasn’t on the ice for the team’s practice, Bruins centerDavid Krejci, who is dealing with a core injury, skated Monday morning at Ristuccia Arena. Krejci has been out since he left last Tuesday’s practice, missing games in Carolina and Chicago. He is also expected to miss Tuesday’s game against the Hurricanes.

“David skated this morning,” coach Claude Julien said. “He’s coming around. Probably doubtful for tomorrow, but after that I would really qualify him as day-to-day.”

Tyler Seguin skated with the first line once again Monday, so expect the team’s leading scorer to remain between Milan Lucic and David Krejci Tuesday night at the Garden.

By Justin Doubleday | Comments Off on Andrew Ference on D&C: Bruins ‘have to work through some frustrations’

Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference joined Dennis & Callahan Friday morning for his weekly appearance. Ference discussed the Bruins’ slow start to the season and the reasons behind their struggles. Boston is 1-3, and some have wondered if the B’s are struggling from the so-called “Stanley Cup hangover.”

“I know that we’ve had some close games, we’ve been a bit frustrated that we’ve not been playing as good as we can,” Ference said. “We’re just going through a tough little stretch right now.”

Ference said that execution has been the problem for the Bruins, as they’ve played some “sloppy games.” The defenseman suggested that the Bruins may be expecting too much of themselves this early in the season, especially after the success of last year’s team.

“We’ve gone through it before as a team where we’ve almost tried too hard to be perfect and you expect yourself to be perfect at this time of year. It just doesn’t work that way,” Ferrence said. “You have to build up your game again. Obviously, we have a foundation to work from. But everything’s not going to be as crisp as it was halfway through the year and you can’t get frustrated when things aren’t at the standard that we had during the playoffs. You have to build up to that. I think we have to work through some frustrations with that.”

On if teams are playing the Bruins tougher this year: “They’ve been tough games, for sure. ‘¦ It’s definitely tough. Every opponent is going to get up for you. You know, I think that we had a standard as a pretty good team in the league for the last three years. Teams would get up for the Boston game anyways because of our success over the last few years. But you definitely expect a bump. I know how I would play against the defending champs in past years.”

On if bringing the Stanley Cup to Gillette was overkill now that the season has started: “I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. It’s a real positive thing that the Patriots were going to do for us. ‘¦ It’s the last thing with the Cup, for sure, but there’ll be plenty more team get-togethers and we’ll have a good time, because that’s what we do. It helps build the team up. ‘¦ You turn the page on the Cup, but you don’t forget about it.”

On how road trips are good for team bonding: “It’s nice, especially for a couple of the new guys we have on the team just to get them more involved with everybody. Those are the guys that I feel bad for during the start-of-the-season Cup stuff, because it’s just a little awkward.”

On Marchand and Seguin playing well early in the season: “I’m not surprised with how well they’re playing. Definitely I think there were a few guys who talked with them after the season when they were going pretty good there. They’re both really good character guys and have some pretty good drive and unbelievable skills. I can’t say I’m surprised. I’m happy that they took care of themselves for the majority of the summer and got ready. As soon as I saw Seguin when he came to training camp, I knew we were in for a good year from him. He was absolutely ripped. He was a kid last year and he bulked up, he looked more like a man, so we’re in for good things from him, so that was great. And Marchand’s got a killer attitude, as you can tell, he plays on the edge. He’s not going to give up on anything.”

By DJ Bean | Comments Off on A few numbers on Tyler Seguin centering the Bruins’ top line

With David Krejciout for Saturday’s game against the Blackhawks, Bruins fans can expect to see more ofTyler Seguin as the team’s first-line center. Seguin skated between Nathan Hortonand Milan Lucic for the first time in Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes and made a good impression. He scored the team’s first goal in the third-period and is now tied for the team lead with four points through four games.

Given that he’ll play with the line again, here are a few quick notes on Seguin’s first game as the Bruins’ first-line center.

– It should come as no surprise given that he played on the first line, but Wednesday saw Seguin play 20:06, good for a new career high. His previous best in ice time had been 17:22, which he received last Nov. 3.

– Last season, Seguin only got 15 minutes of ice time in five games. This season, he has played at least 16 minutes in every game but Monday’s shutout loss to the Avalanche.

– Seguin led all Bruins forwards with four shots on goal Wednesday night. It was the second time this season that he’s done so, as he and Rich Peverley each had five shots on goal Saturday against the Lightning.